Those same companies also see a 24 percent higher profit margin than those who spend less on employee development.

Together, these numbers show that leaders need to transform and advance employee development as a change strategy.

Dr. John Kotter, retired professor of management science at Harvard University, says 70 percent of change efforts derail or fail to achieve their objectives. “Wicked” problems can be intractable and enduring. “Sticky” issues can haunt and weaken the motivation of employees to grow and improve themselves.

For those leading employee development efforts, emergent complexity can stymy or stall organizational investments in workforce development. Unexpected and unseen “dynamical change” forces have led plenty of training and enrichment programs into performance quagmires. Watching your development initiative fall by the wayside does not have to be your fate.

Complexity science, systems thinking and adaptive action represent the new change toolkit for today's change producers. With new awareness and newer skills, change leaders are learning to reposition their workforce development to be more agile, responsive and emergent to market demands.